Bash, Iakov

(pseudonym of la. V. Bash-mak). Born July 26 (Aug. 8), 1908, in the village of Milovoe, now Kherson Oblast. Soviet Ukrainian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1938.

Bash worked on the construction of Dneproges (Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant). In 1937 he graduated from the philology department of the University of Kiev. His works began to appear in print in 1930. The persons and events associated with the Dneproges construction project became the subject matter of many of the author’s books, such as the sketches Days of Attack (1933), the novella Power (1934), and the novel On the Banks of the Slavuta (1941; revised version entitled Warm Feelings, 1947). The struggle of the Ukrainian people against Hitler’s invaders (Bash took part in the partisan movement) provided the theme for a novella and play, both entitled Professor Buiko (1946). The events of the war and subsequent years are depicted in the novels Nadezhda (1960) and On the Steep Path (1967).